Having accomplished his dream of serving the eggs of eight different birds at one brunch, Haute Barnyard enfant terrible Colin Alevras of the Tasting Room is now contemplating his own high-end burger. But only if it “isn’t just another burger or some kind of over-the-top tarted up silliness. It had to have integrity.” Fair enough. So what did Alevras come up with? “I’m still working on it,” the chef tells us, “but we won’t be using pork fat like some people do, because then it’s just a sausage.” (Take that, Ryan Skeen!). “I want to put neck meat in there and tongue and heart and a little bit of calves’ liver for flavor. And why use fat, which just melts away anyway? I’m going to use marrow for fat, which will stay intact and also have a beefier, deeper taste.” Alevras is ensconced in bun and cheese issues, but the burger will debut for brunch service on March 30. Its name? The Old McDonald Burger. How's that for Haute Barnyard?
Related: The Tasting Room Lays Eight Eggs on Us

We just got this press release this morning about a theatrical event to be held at the Tasting Room. The irony wasn't wasted on us: The Tasting Room is one of the least theatrical restaurants in the city, though none the worse for that. But what will no-frills chef Colin Alevras come up with to go along with three short plays written for the evening? And more importantly, do you want to pay $250, the price according to the event's Website, to find out?

Most brunches offer “your choice of eggs,” but Colin Alevras of the Tasting Room is taking the concept to an almost ludicrous degree. In an act of Haute Barnyard extremism, the chef is giving customers the choice of eight different kinds of eggs: goose, pea hen, duck, wild turkey, pheasant, guinea hen, black silky chicken, and of course regular organic farm eggs for the terminally unadventurous.

Jonathan White was a server at Perry Street before he started work at the Tasting Room last year, when the Haute Barnyard fixture moved to its larger location. “The main reason,” White says of his job change, “was to get into that relaxed environment where you have more autonomy and you can interact with the guests” — to the point, apparently, where they feel comfortable telling him he looks like Fidel Castro (he’s also gotten Lenin, Chekhov, and Shakespeare). We asked White (who is actually a writer) to give us just a little taste of his day job.
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